Welcome to Gryffindor
by DreamingInRhythm
Summary: NextGen fic. A series of oneshots  following our heroes through Years 1-3, concerning the sorting of Scorpius Malfoy into Gryffindor, the adventures of the Weasley-Potters, and the soon to be dreaded Unification movement. Rated T for language. Enjoy!
1. Requirements

A long line of smallish eleven-year-olds streamed from the entrance to the Great Hall. Rose glanced about, her young mind too overloaded with the sensory explosion of the chamber to stay focused on anything for more than a few seconds. Every square inch of the gargantuan hall may well have been covered in gold. She threw her head back and almost collapsed from the sudden change in balance. Her mother was right! The ceiling really was a sky!

"Weasley, Rose!" The call to the raised platform, on which stood a stool, a worn and grotty-looking hat, and Professor Longbottom, shocked Rose back into reality.

"Rose Weasley!" shouted Professor Longbottom again. She must've been standing there for longer than she thought if the professor had to repeat her name. Someone gave her a nudge forward, starting her journey to either celebration or condemnation. For the basic requirements for anyone with the surname Weasley were to go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, be sorted into Gryffindor House, and have red hair. Fail any of those, and Rose was quite certain her family would abandon her. She at least had the red hair. There was hope for her yet… right?

She sat down on the stool, and right then, all she was aware of was every pair of properly working eyes being trained on her. Her brain began to hurt with all of the weight on her to be what everyone expected her to be. She was a Weasley. Weasleys took up a good chunk of the Gryffindor table. They had never been anything else, to her knowledge. Her heartbeat picked up at the thought of her not being in Gryffindor. What if she was sorted into Hufflepuff? Ravenclaw? Slytherin? She shuddered at the thought of Slytherin. It was the house she was brought up to hate with every fiber in her soul.

"Oh, it's _another_ Weasley. Ye gads, you Weasleys reproduce like rabbits," muttered the Sorting Hat once it touched her head. "So, I suppose you are to be a Gryffindor then. But you have so much potential for any other house… well, except for Hufflepuff. I don't even rightly know what a Hufflepuff _is_, for that matter."

"Erm, I'd much prefer Gryffindor," she squeamishly replied to the Hat's rant.

"Very well, though I think you would do well in any other house, you are now a GRYFFINDOR!"

Raucous cheering filled the hall as the Sorting Hat (and a great deal of stress) was taken off of Rose's head. She beamed proudly as she strutted to the Gryffindor table to join a cluster of carrot-tops sitting in the middle.

"They must be doing this whole thing _backwards_!"exclaimed Dominique as she and Victoire slid apart to make room for Rose. "Someone had to have fudged the list."

"Thank you so much for your astute observation, cousin," Fred said on Dominique's other side, feigning wonder. "I don't think any of us could've come to _that_ conclusion!"

"Shut up," Dominique reprimanded with a flick to Fred's head.

Several sortings passed, and then, it was Albus' turn. Victoire, being the de facto leader of the Weasley children, had to quiet the warring Dominique and Fred by charming a handy roll of Spellotape to stretch over their mouths. As bloodless as Al's nervous and clammy face was, he was sorted into Gryffindor, and his skin regained some of its color as he joined his family. "Told you I wouldn't be in Slytherin, James," Albus said to his brother smugly as he sat down next to Rose.

"Malfoy, Scorpius!" Professor Longbottom shouted. As the pale boy wove through the woefully unorganized line to the front, James sneered, "Oh, please. Watch that Malfoy be sorted into Slytherin."

"I dunno, James," said Albus. "He's not bad. And he's pretty brave, sitting with me and Rose for the entire ride here. In fact, he was so brave, I wouldn't be surprised if he was sorted into Gryffindor."

"Quiet, you two!" snapped Victoire.

Rose didn't quite know what to think of Scorpius. Her father told her not to get _too_ friendly with him, but her mum scolded her father's commentary on the boy. Scorpius seemed cordial enough in the ride to Hogwarts, and Albus really took to him, but Rose didn't even look at him for the duration of their trip, for fear of being too friendly. She wondered what exactly the extent of "too friendly" was, and she figured that her looking away from Scorpius for so long was rather much, in retrospect.

So, she watched as Professor Longbottom picked up the Sorting Hat from the stool to let Scorpius take a seat. Rose didn't miss Neville's doubtful glance at the boy. He probably thought the child a monster like Draco Malfoy to be sorted into Slytherin. It was almost like he questioned the necessity of the ritual for this particular case. But he continued to lift the hat to Scorpius' head, anyway. Professor Longbottom was never one to make a scene.

Much like his father, the hat had barely touched Scorpius' head before it declared his house. It seemed quite confident in its judgment, but it had to have made a mistake.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

The Great Hall was the quietest it had been in a long time. Not one person spoke or dared to even move for fear of making their seat creak loudly and break the silence. Nearly every face in the place registered total shock; the rest were simply those of confused muggle-borns. But then, there was Scorpius' expression. If he was pale before, his skin was now the color of fresh snow. He was as surprised as anyone, but most of all, he looked worried as he stared at the ground. Rose pitied the boy immensely now, regardless of what anybody else thought of him. They were the same. In Scorpius, she saw herself if she had been sorted into Slytherin or any other house. For that, she wanted to run over to him and hug him and tell him everything would be all right.

Before she could, however, Albus, either completely oblivious to the tension in the Great Hall or being incredibly braver than he was that morning, stood up, waved to Scorpius, and called, "Over here, Scorpius! You're a bloody _Gryffindor_, too; isn't that _terrific_?"

As much as Scorpius' look begged to differ, he still stepped down from the platform and made his way to the Gryffindor table, shaking with nerves. Still standing, Albus lowered his voice (although not much) and told James, "Ha! _See_, James, I was right! Two for two! That's got to count for something!"

"Yes, Al, you'll be brilliant at Divination one day. Now _sit down_," Victoire hissed, perturbed.

Albus complied and made room for Scorpius between him and Rose. As the boy sat down, the sorting continued, with Professor Longbottom's voice cracking as he called for the next student. A low murmur began in the hall, everyone glancing at Scorpius, who looked like he'd have loved to melt into the cracks in the stone floor, right then.

"It's all right, Scorpius," Albus chattered at him. "This year's going to be great! We'll have a grand time, don't you worry!"

The Weasleys were giving Scorpius suspicious looks, frightening the Malfoy to no end. Rose gave him a slight nudge and a hopefully comforting smile and said, "Welcome to Gryffindor, Scorpius."

* * *

**A/N:** All righty, readers. Thanks for reading. I've been reading fanfiction for awhile, so I figured I'd take it for a whirl today. I've had this idea knocking around in my head for a long time, of Scorpius Malfoy being sorted into Gryffindor, as opposed to Slytherin, through the eyes of Rose. It always intrigued me to explore the what, the how, and the why of the thing, and possibly a few repercussions. I think I did pretty well with this first little entry in the tale I have going. Ah, yes, that's another thing; this is going to be a series of oneshots, taking place between Years 1-3 for Scorpius, Albus, and Rose. In short, the purpose of these is to set up for a full, cohesive story continuing from 4th year, and onward, and have some fun in the process. At least, that's the plan. I'm pretty sure my consistency in updating is going to be pretty sketch from here on out, what with school and other such things concerning my life. But no matter how long it takes, this WILL get written. No matter how many times I say to myself, "I give up!" and yet, still keep going with it. I do this because this is something that happens a lot to me. I don't stop because I love writing. Not only that, but my muse will keep banging around inside my head until I let it out onto the page. What can I say? My muse is riotous. I've got a lot of good ideas for this, in my opinion. So stick around. This'll be interesting.

R&R, bitte. I like me some reviews. Especially constructive criticism. No joke, I love it. Ain't it lunacy?

- DreamingInRhythm


	2. The Healing of the Sore Thumb

"Skrewt knickers," Scorpius said. The portrait of the Fat Lady swung open for him and he entered as fast as he could. He gathered that the Fat Lady didn't like it when people "took their sweet time getting into the bloody common room" from their few conversations together. He didn't like making people disappointed. To his relief, his sorting into Gryffindor last month went along smoothly with his family. He had not received any Howlers, nor had his family stopped communicating with him altogether. From the letters his mother had written him, it seemed as though they were proud, a much more favorable outcome than them being disappointed, in his mind.

The fire crackled amongst the low grumble of voices carrying on in conversation around the common room. There looked to be a rousing game of Exploding Snap going on in the center, but it was mostly fifth years, all of whom seemed too vain to Scorpius to engage in fair conversation, him being a younger and, albeit, disliked stain on Gryffindor House's pride. Being the sore thumb in the bunch took some getting used to, but Scorpius did relatively well by himself. Albus kept him company quite often, and someone would always reluctantly follow on occasion when they had nothing better to do.

Scorpius looked to a little alcove next to a window, with a table and lamp set in it. The alcove was where one could always find a Weasley, doing just about anything. One night, Fred might be selling some illegal Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes merchandise, and on another, Dominique might be attempting to Transfigure poor Louis into a dragon. The possibilities were seemingly endless with the eclectic family. Scorpius didn't understand how his grandfather so hated these people, so interesting and hilarious were they.

Tonight, however, it was a fairly peaceful scene. Victoire and Albus were playing Wizard Chess, and it looked like Albus was losing. His hand was in his mess of jet black hair, and he was eyeing Victoire's queen piece in horror as it approached his king. When Scorpius reached the table, the queen was smashing Al's king to bits, and Victoire was holding an open hand out to Albus as he rooted around his pockets for something. "C'mon, Vic," complained Albus.

"No quarter, Al," she replied. "A deal's a deal."

"Fine." Albus sighed and pulled out a sickle, putting it into Victoire's outstretched hand.

"Good," she said. "That'll teach you to borrow money and not expect the lender to collect. Even _if_ they're family." Victoire noticed Scorpius' presence and nodded to him. "Hello, Scorpius."

Albus turned to Scorpius with a look on his face that indicated that Scorpius was close to godhood in his eyes. "Scorpius! You're good at chess! D'you think you could win me my sickle back?"

Scorpius looked to Victoire. "Only if she wants to play for it again."

She gave Scorpius a wry smile that he would one day come to find comfort in and said, "You're on, Malfoy."

So, Scorpius reset the whole pieces, while Victoire took it upon herself to repair the pieces in rubble. When everything was ready, Victoire gestured for him to go first, saying, "Age before beauty, Malfoy."

They stopped playing when they noticed that everyone had gone to bed. A glance at the grandfather clock behind Scorpius told him it was nearly half-past three in the morning. He looked back at the board. Victoire was winning, but not by much. The two of them shared a look, and Victoire leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. Scorpius copied her to seem cool. However, that didn't quite work, as Victoire chuckled at him and got up. "Not bad, Malfoy," she said as she passed him. "We'll continue this later." She paused and turned back as if she forgot something, pulled out her wand, and cast a charm on the board. "It'll keep anyone who isn't us from tampering with the game. Like Fred, or James, or possibly Albus." She threw a shrewd look at Scorpius. "You won't move anything when I'm not there, will you?"

Seemingly without fear (though he did not at all understand how that happened), he said, "So long as you don't do the same."

That wry smile of hers came back. "You're a good kid, Malfoy," she said, ruffling his hair. She walked towards the Girl's Dormitories. Before she began to climb the stairs, she said to him, "And for the record, Scorpius, no matter the preconceptions about you that everyone else seems to have, I think you're in the right house." With a nod, she ascended the stairs, leaving Scorpius to go to his dorm, prouder of himself than he had ever been.

* * *

"Pawn to E6." Scorpius' final pawn piece slid itself into place, looking rather frightened.

"Interesting move, Malfoy," Victoire commented, forefinger tapping chin as she considered her options.

"Oh, bloody hell, Victoire, finish him off already!" said an antsy James.

"Oy, sod off, James," Roxanne Weasley retorted. "This is _chess_. You've got to think before you make your move."

"I'm bloomin' aware, Roxy."

"No, I don't really think you are, James. Of chess. Of the world around you. Of anything, for that matter."

"You know what I think?" interrupted Victoire. "I think that if you two can't keep your mouths shut, I'll Transfigure your lips into zippers, because I don't see any other way to silence you."

Scorpius smiled. Partially because the win was leaning towards him, and also because of the banter of the Weasleys. They were better than even the WWN.

As Victoire made her next move, Fred came in through the portrait clutching the most recent edition of the _Daily Prophet_. "Oy, look at this!" he said when he got to the table. "Someone's trying to push for unification at the Ministry again. Ain't it lunacy?"

"Let me see," said Victoire, a frown on her face. She examined the paper for a few minutes, sighed, and passed the paper back to Fred. "Damn Unification supporters. They never consider the consequences of such foolishness."

"What's this Unification thing?" Scorpius asked.

Whilst everyone else was shocked to remember Scorpius was there, Victoire looked at him, a very thoughtful look in her eye. "You don't know?" she asked.

"No," he replied. "My parents talk about what happens at the Ministry all the time, but I haven't ever really listened in."

James looked like he was about to crack a bad joke on Scorpius' integrity, but he was quieted by a particularly dark look Victoire gave him. "The Unification movement includes a small portion of the Ministry," she explained. "They all believe that the Office of Misinformation should be dissolved, and instead, the Ministry should tell the muggles the truth about our world, in the hopes that unilateral understanding and peace might result."

"Which is absolute rubbish, might I add," Fred said. "The muggles would sooner attempt to kill all of us before letting us live among them."

"Not to say that _all_ muggles are like that. Only the stupid ones. Just like wizards. You know that there are a few of us who would abuse the truth, same as any other malicious muggle. Remember that whole World War debacle?"

Fred waved off Victoire. "In any case, no one in the Wizengamot would ever go for it."

James, who had been reading the article over Fred's shoulder, piped in. "That is, if Erfus isn't chosen to be Minister of Magic. Looks like he just declared himself a supporter of Unification today."

Fred jumped at James' surprising presence behind him and proceeded to whack James' head with the _Prophet_. "He won't, I can promise you that. He doesn't have the credentials that Barlin has."

"Oh, enough!" Victoire exclaimed. "Malfoy and I are trying to play chess! If you boys wouldn't mind leaving, that would be wonderful, thank you."

In mock-sadness, Fred and James loped to the other side of the common room and continued talking about politics, while Roxanne pulled up a chair to the table to watch the chess match. Victoire shook her head in exasperation. "What I wouldn't give to be in a small family without much quarrel."

"Want to trade?" Malfoy asked. Victoire chuckled and pointed to the board. "Your move, Malfoy."

* * *

By the end of the month, the game finally seemed close to its conclusion. Both Victoire and Scorpius had only two of their pieces still remaining on the board, including their kings. Roxanne was observing as usual, and Albus was eagerly awaiting a victory, one that Scorpius was certain Al hoped included the return of his precious Sickle.

Victoire sighed, her eyebrows slowly knitting together. "You know, I think my king would like to call a peace treaty between our two sides. He and the queen are lonely, now that all of their subjects have been killed on the field of battle."

"And my king is probably getting quite tired of fighting a war with only his faithful knight by his side. The knight's a git, anyways," Scorpius replied. He held a hand out to Victoire. "It's a draw."

Victoire took his hand and shook it. "Good game, Malfoy."

Albus looked mortified. "Wait! What about my Sickle?"

Roxanne turned to her cousin and said, "Albus, I never thought you'd be so _selfish_. Scorpius and Vic have been playing for an entire _month_ for your stupid Sickle, and all you can think of is yourself. You should be ashamed." She got up with a rough scrape of her chair and marched up to her dormitory in a huff.

Albus turned beet-red at her words, and with tears welling in his eyes, he ran to his own dormitory. Victoire frowned and cradled her forehead in her hand. "Bloody hell," she murmured. "She's been heartbreakingly blunt to the point of idiocy these days. I'm going to have to talk to her about that." She looked up to Scorpius and pulled out the Sickle. She slid it to him and said, "I think you deserve it, Scorpius. You've kept me at a game for the longest time I've ever seen, and I hold you in pretty high esteem for that. So, have it, mate. You've earned it."

She stood up, but before she left, Scorpius said, "How about starting up a new game tomorrow? It's been fun, Vic."

She shot him that wry smile he'd become familiar with and said, "Yeah, Scorpius. I'd like that a lot."

Scorpius smiled back. He took the coin from the table and hurried up the stairs to the Boys' Dormitories.

When he opened the door to his room, he heard some sniffling coming from Albus' bed. "Al?" Scorpius said.

"Go away," Albus moaned. Scorpius thought his friend sounded a lot like Moaning Myrtle, and he intended to remedy that. He walked over to Albus' bed, where the crying boy was sitting up and driving the crocodile tears from his cheeks with his fists.

"Here, Al," Scorpius said, holding out the Sickle. "I won your Sickle back. It's yours."

Albus snuffled and looked at the money, then up at Scorpius. "No," Albus said. "Roxy's right. If there's anyone who should get it, it's you. I don't have any use for it, anyway; we can't go to Hogsmeade until we're third years. But… thanks, Scorpius. For playing for the Sickle, I mean."

Scorpius closed his hand. "Anything for a friend, mate."

Albus smiled at that. "You know what? My Uncle Ron says the worst things about your family, but you're not like that at all."

Scorpius knew what Albus was talking about. His own father sat him down and they had a long talk about what happened during the war. It was after his grandfather Lucius had gotten angry with Draco when they were discussing politics, and told him that "If you care so much for the welfare of these damnable _muggles_, you're no better than a blood traitor!" They both looked very sad as Scorpius' mother showed Lucius out the door. His dad took him by the shoulder and guided him to sit by the fire by him, and his dad told him everything. Every detail about how he grew up, how he acted so cruelly to everyone, how he had become a Death Eater and yet couldn't find the courage to kill someone trying to help him all along, how he wished he could take it all back.

"Yeah," Scorpius replied. He looked around the room to the other beds, finding the one he was trying to find relatively quickly. He walked over to it and put the Sickle under the pillow.

Albus gave him a quizzical look. Scorpius explained, "Angus just lost his tooth. Zabini punched it out, remember?"

Albus smirked as he thought of the incident. "Well, at least Fred was around to help him out. It's a good idea, my friend. He'll be happy to see it."

Scorpius rummaged around in his trunk and pulled out a bag of Bertie Bott's Every-Flavored Beans. "Want some, Al?"

"Would I ever!" Albus exclaimed. He leapt off his bed and sat next to Scorpius. He pulled a light brown bean out of the bag. "I think I've gotten the worst of the beans before. Beware the greenish-white ones; they're fart-flavored." He popped the bean into his mouth and started chewing. His face contorted into a disgusted expression.

"What flavor is it, Al?"

Albus managed to swallow it and said, "Poop." He started vomiting all over the floor.

Scorpius ran to the door, shouting, "FRED, WE NEED SOME PEUKING PASTILES AND WE NEED THEM _NOW_!"

* * *

**A/N:** And there we go! In this one, I wanted to get Scorpius' perspective on things. He's been raised by Draco, who, as we can see, has been living with a lot of mental scars because of the mistakes he made when he was young. Because of this, he hasn't brought Scorpius up to be the complete and total little shit that he was, but as a more upstanding person who thinks about others more than he thinks about himself. I've always envisioned Scorpius to be a better guy than the Malfoys' reputation lets on, because it's such a wonderful surprise to everyone who thinks otherwise.

Also, the Unification movement begins to pop up here. The situation isn't good right now, far beyond what Victoire and Fred imagine it to be. You'll see why soon enough, readers.

Even though the whole chess game thing is incredibly clichéd, it works well with what we want to happen. Scorpius' being an outcast in Gryffindor is not something easily fixed, unless you become friends with a bunch of Weasleys. And here we can see Victoire taking Scorpius under her wing, which begins to speak volumes about the boy's good character to the rest of the Gryffindors, as the everyone almost congregates around her like moths to light. Victoire is a very regal and leaderly sort of character, and it's good to see her becoming a great friend to him. It's the pathway to acceptance.

This is also something about the growing up of Albus. In what JKR's written about him, he's a very sensitive and scared little guy. It's important to show that even though he's a Gryffindor, he's still an eleven-year-old kid, and there's a lot that he still has to learn, and learn, he does. He's a great character for it, in my opinion. Of course, his naivety is greatly what begins the friendship between him and Scorpius.

Speaking of friendliness, I'm sorry about the absence of Rose in this chapter. However, I didn't really think she was needed in this chapter, mostly because it wasn't about her. She'll have plenty of page-time in the next chapter, so worry not.

WOW, I think this has been the longest Author's note ever! I'll shut up now before I give away the end of the story. R&R, if you please, and if you see any spelling or grammar errors, tell me, and I'll fix it. Please and thank you!

- DreamingInRhythm


End file.
